May 6, 2025 • 9 mins
A NEW EXHIBIT ON A FAMOUS DISASTER HITS TOWN It's all about the Titanic, which of course was a massive ocean liner that hit an iceberg and sank, taking many lives with it. Now there is an exhibit in town, Titanic: An Immersive Voyage that opens in Denver on May 7th. It’s been 40 years since the Titanic wreck was discovered by Navy officer Robert Ballard, 400 miles off Newfoundland’s coast, ending a 73-year mystery. Now, as we mark this historic find, Exhibition Hub and Fever bring the Titanic’s story to life in Denver with the “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” exhibition. Come aboard the Titanic on the fateful night of April 14, 1912, when the "unsinkable" ship met its tragic end, and explore the wreck’s rediscovery from Ballard in 1985, that captivated the world. I'm chatting with John Zaller, the Executive Producer from Exhibit Hub about what you can expect today at 12:30. Get your tickets now by clicking here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's something coming to the Exhibition Hub and joining me
now the executive director of Exhibition Hub, John Zoller, to
talk about an exhibit that I have a sinking feeling about.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
John, that's right, see what I did there that was good?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
An immersive voyage.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
An immersive voyage? Was that on on purpose as well? Immersive?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Well, yeah, I mean we create immersive experiences. So we
did Bubble Planet with dun Van Go all over the
country and we wanted to take it to another level
using historical artifacts this incredible story of Titanic, but placing
you in the story like never before.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Okay, so what can people expect? Because I went to
the Van Go exhibit, which was very cool, but that
was artwork projected on the walls and everything, and it
was very cool, but it was sort of that was it.
That's right, not to downplant, but that was it. But
how is this different?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
So with a lot of immersive shows, and you know,
people say, oh, it's immersive, it means it's a projection
on the wall. But what immersive really means is it
takes you out of the everyday it places you in
a different environment. And with Titanic at Immersed Voyage, we're
taking all that stuff off the walls and giving you
sets that you walk through. You board the ship. You
(01:09):
become a passenger. On board the ship, we give you
a boarding pass. I gave you a couple of Yeah
games are very cool. You walk the hallways of the
first class hallways, you explore the Grand staircase, the Titanic
first class dining room, and then we take you to
the night of April fourteenth, nineteen twelve, where you're standing
on the bridge and you're watching those ice warnings come in.
(01:32):
You go into the crow's nest and you try to
spot the iceberg before it appears. And then you walk
the hallways of the ship that are crooked and are sinking.
The ship is actually feels like it's sinking around you.
And then you're sitting in a lifeboat watching Titanic go
down while her wireless messages are being sent out in SOS.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I've done a lot of Titanic exhibits. I've done twenty
five years I've been doing Titanic exhibits.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Right, this is.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
The Titanic exhibit I've ever done. And the installation in
Denver at thirty nine hundred Deltti Street is the best
one I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So let me ask you this because I I was
a theater major in college and I did a lot
of lighting tech because I just thought it was fascinating.
Is this about how do you go about creating that
immersive experience? Is it using projection and light?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Like?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
How do you even begin the process? Do you storyboard
it first?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
So you know, you know, with every good play or
every good piece of content, it starts with the written
word and that idea that gets written down. So we said,
how can we tell a Titanic story in a way
that hasn't been told before? And what we did was
we said, what were Titanic's final words right the ship herself?
And we went through all the wireless messages that she
(02:46):
sent throughout the entire journey, and we also really studied
those last couple of hours when Titanic was above water
sending out to stress signals, and we focused that on
an immersive experience projection based, but you're sitting in a
light size replica of a lifeboat. And from there we
built out. We said, okay, what other parts of the
story can we tell? So we tell the story of
(03:08):
all the lore all the fascination with Titanic. We actually
have a lot of artifacts from the movies in the
first part of the in the first part of the exhibit,
and we have a big photo of the bio of
the ship where you can do your King of the
World show. So it's really it's just to lighten the
mood and say, you know, Titanic means something to everybody,
we're all drawn to it, but what does it mean
to you? And then we take you back in time
(03:30):
to that entire story of immigration, the creation of Titanic,
boarding the ship and exploring all of her opulent all
of our opulent state rooms and accommodations.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Why do you think this story is so enduring? Why
is there still so much interest in something that happened
over one hundred years ago.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, Titanic really is the Greek tragedy of our modern era.
It has over two thousand people on board, It's the
largest moving object ever created, it's unsinkable. All the hubrists
and all the fanfare around it, all the hopes and dreams,
and then the cruel hand of fate and Iceberg and
the exact spot Titanic was in the middle of the
(04:09):
ocean in the middle of the night. It's a story
that you couldn't make up. It's so unreal, but it's
something that really happened. And no matter where you are
in your life, as you journey through your life, there's
going to be some person on Titanic that you could
relate to, because every class, every age, every hope, every
dream were represented on board that ship.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Tell me a little bit about the nuts and bolts here.
You just mentioned that it is at the Exhibit Exhibition
Hub Art Center. That's thirty nine hundred Ilotti Street, kind
of at the intersection of I seventy and I twenty five.
What exit do you use to get off there? I'd
have to check Google Maps, use Google Maps. What is
the is the assembly?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Student housing is also part of it, so that's a
good way to find it. And you know, as a
lot of people went to bang Goo, a lot of
people went to Bubble Plant, the same exact space.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Okay, what's the price on this.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
So we're starting at twenty eight eight ninety five and
then we go up from there. We do have some
student tickets that are in the lower twenties, and then
there's a standard ticket, and we also do have a
VIP ticket either way. You can also experience the virtual reality,
which we haven't talked about. I can tell you about before.
But in the virtual reality, you actually dive to the
(05:22):
wreck of the Titanic.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So do you do that with VR goggles?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Ok?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
And you can see the wreck of the Titanic better
than if you actually dove to it, and it is submersible.
So it's an incredible experience. So all this stuff we've
talked about obviously excites me a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
It's an incredible show.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
But the virtual reality it's worth It's worth the price alone.
It's worth a visit alone just to go see that
VR in action.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
What are the dates on this?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
So we're opening Thursday, and we're here through the summer
and hopefully we'll be able to extend with the support
of the community. It's kind of how we see how
people like it. There's been a lot of interest. So
we're open every day except for Tuesdays. During the week
we open at ten and on the weekends we open
at nine thirty.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
About what time framer you looking to have the whole experience?
How long does it take?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I would say you could you could do it in
sixty minutes, but it's really more like a ninety minute
experience because there's so much to take in, and if
you really want to make more of a day of it,
you could spend a couple hours in there.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Okay, John Zallar.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I really appreciate you coming in. This sounds absolutely fascinating,
and I've had the opportunity, like I've been to the
Titanic shipyard and stuff like that, so it's it is
interesting that it's still so fascinating, and it just the
to your point, the egos that led to the loss
of so many lives. You know, it is it is
(06:45):
kind of you know, flying too close to the sun
a little bit, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
It is a little bit.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
It's also just that the power of a tragic story
draws us in because we see every aspect of humanity
revealed in those moments.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And you really do get that on Titanic.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I mean, you're gonna have that boarding pass with that
passenger's name on it, and you're gonna check at the
end and see if your passenger survived it was lost,
and that makes it really real for everybody in terms of, Wow,
this is a real story.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Real people were affected by this.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
There's there's always something more to learn from Titanic. I
do think the Hubris element is definitely one that we
learn about, but there's always something new to learn about
titan from Titanic.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
From the story itself.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I have one question from the text line, can you
ask why Rose didn't move over and make room for
Jack on the floating door?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I get that question every time there's there was room
on that door.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
There absolutely was room on the door.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Rose just was just too much of a doorhog to
let it happen anyway. I'm just kidding John. Thank you
so much, Kenn. This is gonna be a stellar exhibit.
I put on the blog today. I put the links
so you can go to mandy'sblog dot com and click
over and get your tickets. Now, I think I'm gonna
come do this. This sounds really really cool.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You're gonna love it. Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So's it just sounds interesting and different, and I love
a good cruise ship.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So I'd like to tour this one.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Did you get the footage or did you How did
you create the footage of the name, staircase and all
of that stuff, So all.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
The recreations that we did.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
So all the sets that we made were built from
the actual Titanic builders plans, So everything you see in
there is a one to one recreation of the sets.
When it comes to the storytelling of the actual immersive
and the sinking, we used video animation.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Obviously.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
We got this great model of the Titanic and floated
on the ocean, and you know, figured out exactly how
to break it, break it up, right, you see it sink.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Oh wow, sitting in a life but you see it
go down.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
And then for the VR, we created a model from
all the incredible scans that have been done over the
past forty years of the of the wreck itself, and
we take you down there and you do this incredible tour.
It's like visiting Hallied Ground right.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Right, sounds very very cool. Check it out. I got
a link on the blog today, John, thanks so much
for your time.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Man, Picky Mandate
There's something coming to the Exhibition Hub and joining me
now the executive director of Exhibition Hub, John Zoller, to
talk about an exhibit that I have a sinking feeling about.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
John, that's right, see what I did there that was good?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
An immersive voyage.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
An immersive voyage? Was that on on purpose as well? Immersive?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Well, yeah, I mean we create immersive experiences. So we
did Bubble Planet with dun Van Go all over the
country and we wanted to take it to another level
using historical artifacts this incredible story of Titanic, but placing
you in the story like never before.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Okay, so what can people expect? Because I went to
the Van Go exhibit, which was very cool, but that
was artwork projected on the walls and everything, and it
was very cool, but it was sort of that was it.
That's right, not to downplant, but that was it. But
how is this different?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
So with a lot of immersive shows, and you know,
people say, oh, it's immersive, it means it's a projection
on the wall. But what immersive really means is it
takes you out of the everyday it places you in
a different environment. And with Titanic at Immersed Voyage, we're
taking all that stuff off the walls and giving you
sets that you walk through. You board the ship. You
(01:09):
become a passenger. On board the ship, we give you
a boarding pass. I gave you a couple of Yeah
games are very cool. You walk the hallways of the
first class hallways, you explore the Grand staircase, the Titanic
first class dining room, and then we take you to
the night of April fourteenth, nineteen twelve, where you're standing
on the bridge and you're watching those ice warnings come in.
(01:32):
You go into the crow's nest and you try to
spot the iceberg before it appears. And then you walk
the hallways of the ship that are crooked and are sinking.
The ship is actually feels like it's sinking around you.
And then you're sitting in a lifeboat watching Titanic go
down while her wireless messages are being sent out in SOS.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I've done a lot of Titanic exhibits. I've done twenty
five years I've been doing Titanic exhibits.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Right, this is.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
The Titanic exhibit I've ever done. And the installation in
Denver at thirty nine hundred Deltti Street is the best
one I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So let me ask you this because I I was
a theater major in college and I did a lot
of lighting tech because I just thought it was fascinating.
Is this about how do you go about creating that
immersive experience? Is it using projection and light?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Like?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
How do you even begin the process? Do you storyboard
it first?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
So you know, you know, with every good play or
every good piece of content, it starts with the written
word and that idea that gets written down. So we said,
how can we tell a Titanic story in a way
that hasn't been told before? And what we did was
we said, what were Titanic's final words right the ship herself?
And we went through all the wireless messages that she
(02:46):
sent throughout the entire journey, and we also really studied
those last couple of hours when Titanic was above water
sending out to stress signals, and we focused that on
an immersive experience projection based, but you're sitting in a
light size replica of a lifeboat. And from there we
built out. We said, okay, what other parts of the
story can we tell? So we tell the story of
(03:08):
all the lore all the fascination with Titanic. We actually
have a lot of artifacts from the movies in the
first part of the in the first part of the exhibit,
and we have a big photo of the bio of
the ship where you can do your King of the
World show. So it's really it's just to lighten the
mood and say, you know, Titanic means something to everybody,
we're all drawn to it, but what does it mean
to you? And then we take you back in time
(03:30):
to that entire story of immigration, the creation of Titanic,
boarding the ship and exploring all of her opulent all
of our opulent state rooms and accommodations.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Why do you think this story is so enduring? Why
is there still so much interest in something that happened
over one hundred years ago.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, Titanic really is the Greek tragedy of our modern era.
It has over two thousand people on board, It's the
largest moving object ever created, it's unsinkable. All the hubrists
and all the fanfare around it, all the hopes and dreams,
and then the cruel hand of fate and Iceberg and
the exact spot Titanic was in the middle of the
(04:09):
ocean in the middle of the night. It's a story
that you couldn't make up. It's so unreal, but it's
something that really happened. And no matter where you are
in your life, as you journey through your life, there's
going to be some person on Titanic that you could
relate to, because every class, every age, every hope, every
dream were represented on board that ship.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Tell me a little bit about the nuts and bolts here.
You just mentioned that it is at the Exhibit Exhibition
Hub Art Center. That's thirty nine hundred Ilotti Street, kind
of at the intersection of I seventy and I twenty five.
What exit do you use to get off there? I'd
have to check Google Maps, use Google Maps. What is
the is the assembly?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Student housing is also part of it, so that's a
good way to find it. And you know, as a
lot of people went to bang Goo, a lot of
people went to Bubble Plant, the same exact space.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Okay, what's the price on this.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
So we're starting at twenty eight eight ninety five and
then we go up from there. We do have some
student tickets that are in the lower twenties, and then
there's a standard ticket, and we also do have a
VIP ticket either way. You can also experience the virtual reality,
which we haven't talked about. I can tell you about before.
But in the virtual reality, you actually dive to the
(05:22):
wreck of the Titanic.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So do you do that with VR goggles?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Ok?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
And you can see the wreck of the Titanic better
than if you actually dove to it, and it is submersible.
So it's an incredible experience. So all this stuff we've
talked about obviously excites me a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
It's an incredible show.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
But the virtual reality it's worth It's worth the price alone.
It's worth a visit alone just to go see that
VR in action.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
What are the dates on this?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
So we're opening Thursday, and we're here through the summer
and hopefully we'll be able to extend with the support
of the community. It's kind of how we see how
people like it. There's been a lot of interest. So
we're open every day except for Tuesdays. During the week
we open at ten and on the weekends we open
at nine thirty.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
About what time framer you looking to have the whole experience?
How long does it take?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I would say you could you could do it in
sixty minutes, but it's really more like a ninety minute
experience because there's so much to take in, and if
you really want to make more of a day of it,
you could spend a couple hours in there.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Okay, John Zallar.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I really appreciate you coming in. This sounds absolutely fascinating,
and I've had the opportunity, like I've been to the
Titanic shipyard and stuff like that, so it's it is
interesting that it's still so fascinating, and it just the
to your point, the egos that led to the loss
of so many lives. You know, it is it is
(06:45):
kind of you know, flying too close to the sun
a little bit, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
It is a little bit.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
It's also just that the power of a tragic story
draws us in because we see every aspect of humanity
revealed in those moments.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And you really do get that on Titanic.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I mean, you're gonna have that boarding pass with that
passenger's name on it, and you're gonna check at the
end and see if your passenger survived it was lost,
and that makes it really real for everybody in terms of, Wow,
this is a real story.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Real people were affected by this.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
There's there's always something more to learn from Titanic. I
do think the Hubris element is definitely one that we
learn about, but there's always something new to learn about
titan from Titanic.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
From the story itself.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I have one question from the text line, can you
ask why Rose didn't move over and make room for
Jack on the floating door?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I get that question every time there's there was room
on that door.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
There absolutely was room on the door.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Rose just was just too much of a doorhog to
let it happen anyway. I'm just kidding John. Thank you
so much, Kenn. This is gonna be a stellar exhibit.
I put on the blog today. I put the links
so you can go to mandy'sblog dot com and click
over and get your tickets. Now, I think I'm gonna
come do this. This sounds really really cool.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You're gonna love it. Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So's it just sounds interesting and different, and I love
a good cruise ship.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So I'd like to tour this one.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Did you get the footage or did you How did
you create the footage of the name, staircase and all
of that stuff, So all.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
The recreations that we did.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
So all the sets that we made were built from
the actual Titanic builders plans, So everything you see in
there is a one to one recreation of the sets.
When it comes to the storytelling of the actual immersive
and the sinking, we used video animation.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Obviously.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
We got this great model of the Titanic and floated
on the ocean, and you know, figured out exactly how
to break it, break it up, right, you see it sink.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Oh wow, sitting in a life but you see it
go down.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
And then for the VR, we created a model from
all the incredible scans that have been done over the
past forty years of the of the wreck itself, and
we take you down there and you do this incredible tour.
It's like visiting Hallied Ground right.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Right, sounds very very cool. Check it out. I got
a link on the blog today, John, thanks so much
for your time.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Man, Picky Mandate
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